Robert Maclennan, Baron Maclennan of Rogart

The Lord Maclennan of Rogart
The Right Honourable; The Lord Maclennan of Rogart; PC
	Robert Maclennan in 2018
President of the Liberal Democrats
	In office; 1 January 1995 – 31 December 1998
Leader	Paddy Ashdown
Preceded by	Charles Kennedy
Succeeded by	Diana Maddock
Leader of the Liberal Democrats
	Acting
	In office; 3 March 1988 – 16 July 1988 Serving with David Steel
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Paddy Ashdown
Leader of Social Democratic Party
	In office; 28 August 1987 – 16 July 1988
Preceded by	David Owen
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Prices and Consumer Protection
	In office; 4 March 1974 – 4 May 1979
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson; James Callaghan;
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Member of the House of Lords; Lord Temporal
	In office; 19 July 2001 – 18 January 2020; Life Peerage
Member of Parliament; for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross; (Caithness and Sutherland, 1966–1997)
	In office; 31 March 1966 – 14 May 2001
Preceded by	George Mackie
Succeeded by	John Thurso
Personal details
Born	Robert Adam Ross Maclennan; 26 June 1936; Glasgow, Scotland
Died	18 January 2020 (aged 83)
Political party	Labour; (before 1981); Social Democratic; (1981–1988); Liberal Democrats; (1988–2020);
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford; Trinity College, Cambridge; Columbia University;

Robert Adam Ross Maclennan, Baron Maclennan of Rogart, PC (26 June 1936 – 18 January 2020) was a British Liberal Democrat politician and life peer.

He was the last leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), serving during the negotiations that led to its merger with the Liberal Party in 1988. He then became joint interim leader of the new party, known as the Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD) and later as the Liberal Democrats. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1966 to 2001, when he was elevated to the House of Lords.

Early life

MacLennan's father, Sir Hector MacLennan, was a renowned gynaecologist and obstetrician. His mother, Isabel Margaret (nee Adam), was a physician and public health activist. He was educated at Glasgow Academy; Balliol College, Oxford; Trinity College, Cambridge; and Columbia University, New York City. He was the brother of David MacLennan, Elizabeth MacLennan and Kenneth MacLennan.

In Parliament

Maclennan (then SDP leader) addressing the Liberal Assembly in 1987

He became Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Caithness and Sutherland in 1966, and serving until 1997; and for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross after boundary changes, from 1997 to 2001.

He was first elected as a member of the Labour Party and served as a junior minister in the Labour government of 1974–1979, but in 1981 defected to become a founder member of the SDP. He was one of the few SDP MPs to keep their seats in the 1983 general election. After his stint as SDP Leader in 1988, he served as a front bench spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, and as their president from 1994 until 1998.

He was appointed to the Privy Council in 1997.[1]

After his retirement at the 2001 general election, he was raised to the House of Lords, created a life peer as Baron Maclennan of Rogart, of Rogart in Sutherland.[2][3] He was the party's Cabinet Office and Scotland spokesman in the House of Lords until 2015.

Death

On 18 January 2020, it was reported that Maclennan had died at the age of 83.[4]

gollark: I finally finished making the overengineered new update system for my "OS" for ComputerCraft (a Minecraft mod which adds computers) work!

gollark: Good to know, I guess.

gollark: Don't they oversubscribe it horribly?

gollark: Even ADSL has something like 8Mbps, which IIRC is more than most satellite things will provide.

gollark: Not compared to any sort of recent land-based one or even mobile networks.

References

"Privy Counsellors". Privy Council Office. Archived from the original on 13 September 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
"No. 56285". The London Gazette. 25 July 2001. p. 8777.
"No. 25054". The Edinburgh Gazette. 24 July 2001. p. 1673.
"Tributes to former SDP leader Lord Maclennan". BBC News. 18 January 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2020.

External links

Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Robert Maclennan
Lord Maclennan of Rogart profile at the site of Liberal Democrats

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by George Mackie	Member of Parliament for Caithness and Sutherland 1966–1997	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross 1997–2001	Succeeded by John Thurso
Party political offices
Preceded by David Owen	Leader of the Social Democratic Party 1987–1988	Position abolished
New office	Leader of the Liberal Democrats Acting 1988 Served alongside: David Steel	Succeeded by Paddy Ashdown
Preceded by Charles Kennedy	President of the Liberal Democrats 1994–1998	Succeeded by Diana Maddock

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] "Privy Counsellors". Privy Council Office. Archived from the original on 13 September 2016. Retrieved 21 September 2016.

[2] "No. 56285". The London Gazette. 25 July 2001. p. 8777.

[3] "No. 25054". The Edinburgh Gazette. 24 July 2001. p. 1673.

[4] "Tributes to former SDP leader Lord Maclennan". BBC News. 18 January 2020. Retrieved 4 April 2020.